Thank you so much to Stephanie Novarro for this great information on traveling with littles!
Anyone who know me knows that I love to travel. I have been traveling with my kids since my daughter was 4 months old. Some people look at you like you are crazy and wasting money on trips that the kids will never remember. But others, like me, understand why traveling is so important and they do it to.
Traveling with little ones, whether driving or flying, is different than traveling alone. The first trip we took with our daughter was supposed to be a quick 3-hour car ride down to Galveston for a long weekend. Well at 4 months old you can imagine that the car ride took closer to 6 hours with stops to feed and change her. If you are worried about the travel part of the trip, don’t be and just go with the flow and you will have a great time. Make sure you plan ahead for extra travel time for feedings or potty breaks for the little ones. I will forever remember our daughters first time at the beach.
When you are flying with small kids it is important to make sure you have enough supplies in your carry on to keep the kids fed and entertained. On a recent trip back home to NY we had our two kiddos with us. At the time, our daughter was 2 and still in diapers and our son was only 4 months and still drinking formula. Our flight was diverted to Pittsburgh because of bad weather in the tri state area and eventually a couple of hours later the flight crew timed out. You can imagine what happened next; there we are with 2 small kids, 2 car seats, a double stroller and luggage boarding a bus to a hotel for the night in Pittsburgh. Had I not packed enough supplies in my carry on being stuck in Pittsburgh could have been a disaster.
How we react as adults in these situations will have an impact on our kids. Were we upset that we were stuck in the airport with 2 kids, sure we were but we never let our kids see our frustrations. While we were in the airport my husband and daughter rode the moveable sidewalks back and forth for what seemed like hours. She LOVED it; she thought it was the best thing. They even stopped and got some Hershey Kisses at one of the newsstands.
Some of the things I always keep in my bag for my kids are SNACKS, lots and lots of SNACKS! I like to have more diapers and wipes than I think I would actually need because who knows how many blowouts your kid will decide to have on the plane. I also take crayons and a coloring book, and of course the iPad.
My advice to you is not to be afraid to travel with your kids when they are babies or even young kids. In most cases, the kids are better travelers than some adults. Make the memories with your kids. My daughter loves to fly and loves to talk about all of our past adventures.
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